A manic third day has set up for an intriguing finish to the Tripura-Haryana Ranji Trophy, round 5 match at the Maharaja Bir Bikram College Stadium in Agartala.

A manic third day has set up for an intriguing finish to the Tripura-Haryana Ranji Trophy, round 5 match at the Maharaja Bir Bikram College Stadium in Agartala.

Chasing 162, Tripura finished the penultimate day at 104/7 taking the tally of number of wickets to fall on Saturday to 20 after Haryana were bowled out for 119 in their second dig.

Resuming their innings at the overnight total of 235, the hosts added 15 more before losing their final three wickets in consecutive overs to hand the visitors 42-run lead on the third morning. Captain Harshal Patel picked the two more wickets to finish with 4/49.

Despite securing the lead, Haryana’s lost their advantage with a poor show with the bat in the second innings, managing just 119 with Ajoy Sarkar and Harmeet Singh picking up three wickets each. Manisankar Murasingh and Subham Singh chipped in with two wickets each.

Openers Himanshu Rana (64) and Nitin Saini (14) had given their team a decent start, adding 31 runs before the floodgates opened. Murasingh got rid of both the openers by 19 overs and Haryana failed to recover from the twin blows.

Just three of their batsman managed scores in double digits.

The chase did began on a solid note with Samrat Singha and Udiyan Bose adding 44 runs. Mayhem followed after Udiyan was dismissed for 17.

Tripura lost their five wickets in the space of just 10 runs and at 54/6, Haryana had again snatched back the advantage in a seesaw affair.

Amit Rana was the wrecker-in-chief accounting for both Tripura openers and then added two more scalps to his kitty, finishing the day at 4/37. The other three wickets went to Tinu Kundu.

At the close of play, Pratyush Singh (23*) and Harmeet Singh (16*) had built a partnership, worth 29 runs, to arrest the slide.